2014 S&P 500 Return

Although most financial media sources will list 11.74% as the S&P 500 index’s return in 2014, an investor reinvesting dividends in the S&P 500 would have theoretically done even better: 14.04%.

Subtract from that (of course) applicable taxes, fees, slippage/timing concerns – but… needless to say, buying, holding, and reinvesting was a very lucrative strategy this year.

The 2014 S&P 500 Return

After the large 32.39% dividend reinvested return in 2013, a further 14.04% is more than most could have asked for on such a widely invested index – happy new year for that! Compound that with 2012’s 16.00% dividend reinvested return and you’re looking at a huge 74.60% reinvestment return just from sitting on your hands and reinvesting your funds – a hefty geometric average of 20.46% a year!

The retrospective calculator ranks the last three years very highly – (Top) 38.12%, 12.00%, 41.96% of years, respectively – all in the top half (and more than half of rolling years are positive returns). Add to that all of the other gains since March of 2009… well, now that’ a bull market!

Will we maintain this momentum? Well, no one can say for certain – but since this is the internet, feel free to leave your no-cost-to-you predictions in the comments!